The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s
By Bill Felber
The Houston Astros 2017-19 powerhouses hold three places among the decade’s 10 best MLB teams…but they all take a back seat to a championship rival.
Let’s get one thing straight at the outset. This is NOT a ranking of the decade’s 10 World Series champions. Although post-season success is an important consideration in ranking MLB teams, it’s just one of four factors on which this ranking is based.
That’s why the recently crowned Washington Nationals are nowhere to be found on this list.
Honestly, the multi-layered post-season system simply introduces too much of an arbitrary element to be a primary indicator of team superiority. After all, three of the decade’s 10 World Series champions did not even win their own divisions. The 2011 Cardinals, 2014 Giants and 2019 Nationals all were wild card entries.
This rating of the decade’s 10 best teams considers four criteria. The criteria, with points awarded, are:
- Post-season success: World Series winner (5), World Series loser (3), and LCS losers 1.5 each).
- Regular-season record: The five best with points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 scale.
- Offense based on the five best team scores in OPS+: 5-4-3-2-1.
- Pitching based on the five best team scores in ERA+: 5-4-3-2-1.
That means a perfect score is 20 points for a team that won the World Series, had the season’s best record, and led the majors in both OPS+ and ERA+. For the record, no such team existed during the 2010-19 decade.
In the event of ties, post-season success is the tie-breaker.
It is a testament to the arbitrary nature of the post-season that only five of the decade’s 10 best MLB teams actually won the World Series. In fact, two of the decade’s 10 best were eliminated in the division series round. One lost at the League Championship Series level, and two others lost in the World Series.
Without further ado, here’s a look at the decade’s 10 best MLB teams